Off To Work, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

A heavy coat, sturdy boots and a hatchet strapped over your shoulder and you are off to work.

Le coin des enfants

While you are enjoying brunch at LM Caffè at the Pullman Château hotel, your kids can play in the children's corner! Don't forget, today is your last chance to take part in VDP's 6th birthday prize draw!

Pendant que vous brunchez au LM Caffè à l'hôtel Pullman, vos enfants peuvent s'éclater dans un coin qui leur est réservé ! N'oubliez pas, aujourd'hui c'est votre dernière chance de participer au tirage au sort d'anniversaire de VDP !

A bed for Tu BiShvat

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Tonight/tomorrow is the Jewish holiday Tu BiShvat, the birthday of our trees.

I would like to make my bed among trees in a liman in the desert, with stars above, and jackal calls as a lullaby.

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Verandahs were for hitchin'

The verandah outside the 1886 Soul Pattinson Chemist

Pitt Street Mall is now a pedestrian plaza. I will chance my arm and declare it the retail heart of Sydney. Once upon a time, the streets of Sydney were littered with shop-front verandahs. They were probably a harking back to "the old country", but I prefer to think of them as a protection from the heat, or even a hitching post for the horse'n'buggy.

This is the facade for Eway & Co, a drapery department store established in 1891 and taken over by Farmers in 1955. The verandah is faux.

Showing the detail in the Soul Pattinson wrought iron.

The "Pitt Street Mall" in 1878. First the east side, then the west side.

Nowadays, there appears to be a harking back to the mid-19th-century, with the return of shop-front verandahs (faux, invariably). It is more easily accommodated in a pedestrian mall, than on a busy footpath beside a major street, like Pitt Street. I quite like the mental image they conjure up, of continuity. Make sure you enlarge the two historic images which I found on State Records Archives Investigator.

The detail of The Strand Arcade wrought iron.

Ursa Minors

In Bucharest for the holidays, boys from Romania’s Moldova region participate in a tradition called ursul, dressing as bears to go caroling in the streets. “The custom is rare and occurs between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve,” writes Fudulu Catalin, who shared this picture with our Your Shot photo community. “This image was taken downtown, where I photographed people facing the first snow. I heard the music of singers, who were accompanied by whistles and drum beats, and I went in [their] direction.”